Floods triggered by more than a week of heavy rains have left 2.5 million Indians homeless.The flooding, described as the worst in living memory, has killed more than 250 people in south India, in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and

More than five million people have taken shelter at temporary government relief centers.

Millions of hectares of cropland, including sugarcane plantations have been flooded by torrential rains, prompting worries about a fall in sugar output in Karnataka, one of the country’s top three producers.

Philippines

An estimated one million people have been severely affected after Tropical Storm Ketsana (locally known as Ondoy) triggered epic flooding in the Philippines.

The storm brought in sever rains and caused the worst flooding in living memory, leaving 80 to 90 percent of Manila completely submerged in floodwater. The official death toll stands at about 300, with another 50 or so missing. The worst problems in the affected areas are

Access to Food and medicine

Disruptions in the supply of power and telecommunications

Shortages of drinking water

Sanitation concerns and threat of supply shortages

Cambodia

Meanwhile, 60,000 people have been affected as a result of flooding and landslides caused by storm Ketsana, with about 20 deaths including a pregnant woman and up to 100 injuries including 20 serious cases and up to 50,000 hectares of crops and rice fields destroyed by flood waters.

According to a report by an aid organization, some 1,519 houses, 55 public buildings, 160 irrigation systems, channels, dams, embankments, 40 km of roads and 3 bridges were damaged, or destroyed, causing major disruptions throughout the flooded areas.

Hundreds of millions of people face flooding

Most of the world’s major river deltas are sinking from human activity, increasing the risk of flooding which would affect hundreds of millions of people.

According to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder, “24 out of the world’s 33 major deltas are sinking and that 85 percent experienced severe flooding in recent years, resulting in the temporary submergence of roughly 100,000 square miles of land.”

About 14 percent of the world’s population, more than half a billion people who live on river deltas, will be affected.

Researchers calculated that 85% of major deltas have experienced severe flooding in the last decade, concluding that the area of flood prone zones will increase by about 50% in the next few decades as sea levels rise and more of the river deltas sink.

Media Report is included in full:

World’s River Deltas Sinking Due to Human Activity, Says New Study Led by CU-Boulder

A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates most of the world’s low-lying river deltas are sinking from human activity, making them increasingly vulnerable to flooding from rivers and ocean storms and putting tens of millions of people at risk.

While the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluded many river deltas are at risk from sea level rise, the new study indicates other human factors are causing deltas to sink significantly. The researchers concluded the sinking of deltas from Asia and India to the Americas is exacerbated by the upstream trapping of sediments by reservoirs and dams, man-made channels and levees that whisk sediment into the oceans beyond coastal floodplains, and the accelerated compacting of floodplain sediment caused by the extraction of groundwater and natural gas.

Figure below: An image of the Pearl River Delta in China taken by NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 2000. The areas below sea level are shown in purple. Image courtesy NASA, CSDMS, University of Colorado.

The study concluded that 24 out of the world’s 33 major deltas are sinking and that 85 percent experienced severe flooding in recent years, resulting in the temporary submergence of roughly 100,000 square miles of land. About 500 million people in the world live on river deltas.

Published in the Sept. 20 issue of Nature Geoscience, the study was led by CU-Boulder Professor James Syvitski, who is directing a $4.2 million effort funded by the National Science Foundation to model large-scale global processes on Earth like erosion and flooding. Known as the Community Surface Dynamic Modeling System, or CSDMS, the effort involves hundreds of scientists from dozens of federal labs and universities around the nation.

The Nature Geoscience authors predict that global delta flooding could increase by 50 percent under current projections of about 18 inches in sea level rise by the end of the century as forecast by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The flooding will increase even more if the capture of sediments upstream from deltas by reservoirs and other water diversion projects persists and prevents the growth and buffering of the deltas, according to the study.

“We argue that the world’s low-lying deltas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, either from their feeding rivers or from ocean storms,” said CU-Boulder Research Associate Albert Kettner, a co-author on the study at CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and member of the CSDMS team. “This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone.”

Other study co-authors include CU-Boulder’s Irina Overeem, Eric Hutton and Mark Hannon, G. Robert Brakenridge of Dartmouth College, John Day of Louisiana State University, Charles Vorosmarty of City College of New York, Yoshiki Saito of the Geological Survey of Japan, Liviu Giosan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Robert Nichols of the University of Southampton in England.

The team used satellite data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which carried a bevy of radar instruments that swept more than 80 percent of Earth’s surface during a 12-day mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2000. The researchers compared the SRTM data with historical maps published between 1760 and 1922.

“Every year, about 10 million people are being affected by storm surges,” said CU-Boulder’s Overeem, also an INSTAAR researcher and CSDMS scientist. “Hurricane Katrina may be the best example that stands out in the United States, but flooding in the Asian deltas of Irrawaddy in Myanmar and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh have recently claimed thousands of lives as well.”

The researchers predict that similar disasters could potentially occur in the Pearl River delta in China and the Mekong River delta in Vietnam, where thousands of square miles are below sea level and the regions are hit by periodic typhoons.

“Although humans have largely mastered the everyday behaviour of lowland rivers, they seem less able to deal with the fury of storm surges that can temporarily raise sea level by three to 10 meters (10 to 33 feet),” wrote the study authors. “It remains alarming how often deltas flood, whether from land or from sea, and the trend seems to be worsening.”

“We are interested in how landscapes and seascapes change over time, and how materials like water, sediments and nutrients are transported from one place to another,” said Syvitski a geological sciences professor at CU-Boulder. “The CSDMS effort will give us a better understanding of Earth and allow us to make better predictions about areas at risk to phenomena like deforestation, forest fires, land-use changes and the impacts of climate change.”

First the car takes your food, then it buries you!

“Human induced climate change is wreaking havoc across the globe. Extreme rain events and incidents of flooding, landslides … are increasing both in frequency and severity, burying building, cars, humans and everything else in their paths.”

Flooding in Busan South Korea July 16, 2009. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.

Our colleagues at MSRB believe that poultry, hog and cattle producers would cut production in 2009 to soften the blow of rising feed costs. With less meat on the retail market the prices would rise higher.

2009 will see more people out of job, and with less food available globally at higher prices, food riots could break out throughout the world.

Civil conflicts could erupt in a dozen countries. In the United States seeds of large-scale civil unrests would be sown. Job riots could plague China, U.S., Europe and other countries.

Several embryos of a terminal global war have already been developed and implanted in multiple socioeconomic and geopolitical ‘uteruses.’

They estimate that 2009 will have 7 hurricanes (average is 5.9), 14 named storms (average is 9.6), 70 named storm days (average is 49.1), 30 hurricane days (average is 24.5), 3 intense (Category 3-4-5) hurricanes (average is 2.3) and 7 intense hurricane days (average is 5.0).

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama insists on the need to develop new forms of energy

“In the 21st century, we know that the future of our economy and national security is inextricably linked with one challenge: energy,” Obama told a news conference. “All of us know the problems that are rooted in our addiction to foreign oil. It constrains our economy, shifts wealth to hostile regimes and leaves us dependent on unstable regions.”

“To control our own destiny, America must develop new forms of energy and new ways of using it. And this is not a challenge for government alone— it’s a challenge for all of us.”

What about Climate Change Mr President-elect?

“We will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that facts demand bold action,” Obama said.

What about the carbon footprint of your inauguration?

The President-elect forgot to mention that Disa orchids will be flown in for his inauguration from New Zealand within 24 hours of being picked!

The total bill for Mr Obama’s inauguration, including cost of the security, which will be paid by the taxpayers, will probably exceed the $160million [Figure revised according to the media estimates on January 20, 2009.] At a global average of 584g of CO2/GDP dollar, the inauguration carbon footprint on cost basis alone would be 93,400 metric tons [MT] of CO2.

[But, hey, that’s nothing compared with the trillion-dollar bailouts being handed out to any bank/corporation large enough to blackmail the state!]

As for the additional CO2 created by an estimated 2 million people swarming Washington DC for the ceremony, add another 44,000 MT. By January 21, 2009, the inauguration carbon footprint will have exceeded 137,400 MT of CO2.

U.S. President-elect [do as I say, don’t worry about what I do] Barack Obama looks on as Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, speaks after being introduced as Obama’s Energy Secretary during a news conference in Chicago, December 15, 2008. Obama also named former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Carol Browner (R) to head a new council to coordinate White House energy, climate and environment policies, and Lisa Jackson (2nd-R), chief of staff for New Jersey’s governor, to run the EPA. REUTERS/Stephen J. Carrera. Image may be subject to copyright.

Ordering orchids from New Zealand for the presidential inauguration is a callous disregard for the environment; it also rates high, “Scale F,” on the Adolescents Social Insensitivity scale

See:

– The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III)

– The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – [published by the American Psychiatric Association]

The “Deadly Dozen” Fits into the Collapse Jigsaw!

WCS has identified 12 deadly pathogens that could spread into new regions aided by climate change

A report by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), released on October 7, lists 12 deadly pathogens that could spread globally as a result of climate change affecting the wildlife, which could then jump species barrier to infect and spread among humans. (Source)

Anthropogenic CO2 Total (1750 – Today)
1,358,931.31 MMT CO2

Total atmospheric CO2

3,008,879.36 MMT [3,008.88GT]

How much CO2 are YOU producing?

How much CO2 was there before?

Measurements of CO2 levels in Ice cores collected in Antarctica and Greenland indicate that the preindustrial carbon dioxide level was 278 ppm. Between 1000 and 1800 A.D. that level varied by no more than 7 ppm.

What about human activities?

The CO2 levels have now reached 386 ppm, which means human activities have increased the concentration of atmospheric CO2 by 109 ppm or 39 percent.

[Note: On various websites reporting the carbon dioxide emissions since 1750 the cumulative amount varies from about 1.3 – 1.8 trillion tons. On one website the amount is published once as 1.36 trillion tons and again as 1.71 trillion tons of CO2 on separate pages. Understandably, no sources are quoted. ]